The digital home is now becoming more complex with the myriad of new and emerging digital devices and services intended to address many user and consumer needs such as communication, entertainment, privacy and security, etc. However, given the complexity of the emerging digital home and digital environments generally, users who are technologically challenged may find it a daunting and intimidating task to integrate new devices into their home network of interconnected digital devices. Additionally, users may find it difficult to integrate new services along with their existing services such as in-home media sources, broadcast sources, Internet services from an Internet Services Provider (ISP), cable television services, etc. Often accompanying the new devices and/or services are user interfaces for controlling functionality and delivery of applications and services. These new interfaces typically have a different look and feel, thus compounding the daunting task of using the new devices and services.
Moreover, new paradigms are emerging oriented to delivering media content to and the consuming of media content at the home. Many of these paradigms rely on communication of application specific data to and/or from the Internet, as opposed to conventional telephone, broadcast video type applications, or from in-home media sources such as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), Digital Video Disc (DVD) players, and the like. Furthermore, with respect to Internet based data, most of the content delivery solutions are provided to the digital home networks through availability of the “two-foot” interface (i.e., the PC). It is relatively cumbersome to bring this Internet based data content to the “ten-foot” interface (e.g., the television).
Increasingly, there is a need in a user home or similar digital environment to interconnect and simplify the overall management of application specific data devices with media content and other data to and/or from the Internet along with on-premises media sources, broadcast media sources, game console devices, and other home network devices with a common, dynamic Graphical User Interface (GUI) as may be presented on a television or audio-video system display. A further need exists to have such a GUI be able to dynamically add applications, features, and functionality as a user adds or removes devices from the home network, or as they subscribe to various services. Such techniques or devices should reduce the complexity of the maintenance, upgrading, and operation of even the more basic needs addressed by emerging digital endpoint devices and networks. Current approaches that suggest greater functionality in home-based appliances fail to reduce or address the complexity of managing and provisioning those appliances, especially with a common GUI presented over the “ten foot” interface, which may be dynamically change as devices, functionality, and services are added or removed.
A further unmet need is for a combination of different content from media and/or application sources to be presented concurrently to a user via a “ten-foot” interface. Accordingly, there is a need for a digital media device inside the user premises to combine signals from various media and/or application sources that are separate from one another, and provide the combined signal to a television display or audio-video system for presentation to the user.
In that regard, it would be desirable to provide a digital media device for a user premises, or a media and service distribution system, that provides a composite of media and application services, IP-based communication services, offers a centralized management capability for application services, and provides a dynamic GUI to access the media and application services.